What a well produced and compelling program. I had no intention of watching it but couldn't drag myself away.
The dedication and bravery of those activists in collecting their video and audio evidence is amazing.

Certainly was a powerful film. Being a slickly produced American doco I kept expecting the good news kicker at the end that since this film has been made the dolphin slaughter has been outlawed by the outraged Japanese population. Didn't happen, and Berry's efforts with the walking monitor are testament to that. That work is still to be done...

I hope they all get mercury poisoning, turned my gut but I had to make myself watch it.

Its very disturbing well i found it to be. Pretty cowardly of the slaughterers. but hey im not a vegetarian.

Didn't see it but have seen a few scenes in the past. Enough to make you cry.

Having had several dolphin encounters in the wild, both sailboarding and boating, where these critters fearlessly approach you just to check you out and have a play, I can't comprehend how people can club them to death. Never had any kind of "kindred spirit" experience with a cow or a sheep.

I think I'm probably like most people though- an inactive activist.

I am not even sure they consume the meat, they do not eat a lot of whale meat and they have a stockpile of it, it is not traditional food I heard they started to eat it during the war cause they had no choice.
The Jap gov. try not to upset the whalers.

I'm an inactive activist too. It wouldn't take much though.

We've got two Japanese cars. It's not been made unacceptable for me to do this yet but if a few adverts, t shirts etc

Sitting behind a bumper sticker in traffic that says

"I drive a Holden cos Yanks don't kill whales..."

"Ford - real men don't kill dolphins"

"Holden made in a country where people watch documentaries about how the Toyota-making country kills whales"

and other more creative things...

then I'd pause for thought when I bought my next one... by which time Toyota would have lobbied the Japanese government into submission and no one would be whaling.

Holden play the "Australian cars designed by Australians who watch Australian TV whilst drinking Australian beer from their eskis just before going surfing on Australian waves in Australia"

maybe they should talk down the Japanese a bit more....

In that Doco there was a statement made that even if the whalers where paid the same amont of money to stay home, they wouldnt accept it and would still go out to kill the whales.

Sad reality is that it starts again in a few days with the 'season' running from September through to March.

Maybe it's time for a revival of the 'Save the Whale' type campaign that resulted in the initial banning of whale hunting and the establishment of the IWC.
This was when the IWC actually had power and conviction... there was no shameless corruption and the buying out of votes with a Japanese Government created slush fund had not begun)

Or maybe greater support to the likes of Sea Shepperd could help put an end to the practice of slaughtering whales and dolphins ?

gooey said...
Kinda like us culling Kangaroos because they are a pest in the National Parks

This practice is seen in line with killing dolphins and whales by many overseas activist groups. The argument is that many of the animals are killed in an inhumane way. In particular the Joes found in the mothers pouch.

Apparently the kangaroo skin trade is worth about $33 million per year. Adidas, Nike and Puma apparently all use kangaroo skin exported from Australian in the manufacturing of their shoes. The skin is valued for it's high strength and relatively low cost.

David Beckham ditched his multi-million dollar Adidas contract in 2007 to protest against the practice. Other supporters include Paul McCartney and our very own Steve Irwin, may he rest in peace.

So I guess in the end there are two questions that need to be answered:

- is the way the dolphins are killed, as portrait in the documentary, cruel

- should dolphins be harvested for consumption in first place

Answer to the first question is definite a yes, it's cruel.

In regards to the second question when you look at the argument the Japanese are brining forward you'd have to say a big no. All arguments are invalid.

Dolphins, Whales, Tigers, Sharks - as humans its all game.
Its just Whales and Dolphins are intelligent and cute.

Video is a bit disturbing but should be watched.

barn said...

gooey said...

Here is a very populated country with minimal land for agriculture or livestock.

There is a wonderful book called 'Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed' where it describes Japans conscious effort to shift their reliance onto the oceans and away from the land. They were suffering habitat loss, erosion and basically environmental disaster due to overpopulation. It's their culture to live off the sea, and we can thank this culture for the pristine wilderness that survives in Japan..

We can hope they will change, meanwhile lets look in our own backyard.. It's quite embarrassing to rag on the Japs for killing dolphins when we are still doing this.

Um they have been doing this for centurys and like the turtle they kill them for food one at a time. They dont heard them all into a little cove and kill them on mass for school lunches.

barn said...

doggie said...


Um they have been doing this for centurys and like the turtle they kill them for food one at a time. They dont heard them all into a little cove and kill them on mass for school lunches.

More than a few centuries, closer to 40,000 years. They also practiced a far bit of infanticide, tribal warfare, and running around without any pants.. (most of those same years Europeans were doing exactly the same thing)

The difference is, that the Aboriginals are quite skillful at sending a species to extinction, and considering the dugong is endangered, and one of our last surviving Megafauna, it reeks of double standards for us to allow this while looking down upon the Japanese for hunting dolphins, which they have also hunted for thousands of years..

They don't heard dugongs and turtles into a little cove, they chase them in speed boats..

Any facts and figures on how many they kill?

^^ www.abc.net.au/news/2008-02-06/fisherman-raises-alarm-on-indigenous-dugong-hunt/1034052

According to that link 1600 Dugongs per year, ten years ago..

I would say for an endangered, slow breeding, life time partnering mammal thats 1600 too many..


www.theage.com.au/national/hunting-for-dugong-turtles-cruel-20100414-se6q.html#ixzz1WaNXeVBg

Mr Beatty said that, when hunted, green sea turtles often had their flippers cut off while they were still alive and were then left on beaches in the sun. He said live dugongs were often tied to wharves and had parts of their flesh cut off intermittently to keep the meat fresh.

''In this day and age with refrigeration and freezing, you don't need to be as cruel as that,'' Mr Beatty said.

I don't really care if they are traditional food, if white fella not allowed to hunt dugong, nobody hunt dugong..

Native Papuan New Guineans ate native human for food.. Japanese are Native, killing Native animals..

The only reason Dugongs have survived 40000 years of introduced Homo sapiens, is simply because they couldn't catch them in bark rafts.. If they had tinnies with 20hp outboards dugongs would already be extinct..

We are unsustainably hunting Dugongs, we don't have a leg to stand on telling the Japanese they can't cull dolphins.. Which is unfortunate..